
A mobile phone company with a conscience?
My gast is flabbered.
Optus has fetched out the hair shirt with CEO Kevin Russell taking the role of public penitent, adding in a scathing attack on the entire telco industry for good measure. Russell's public mea culpa began with a speech to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce in late May, and was expounded on the ABC's Inside Business …
“You can't rely on fifteen-year-old children going over their caps and having two or three thousand dollar data bills. That's just wrong – it's wrong morally, it's not sustainable.”
Bravo - first time I've heard them admit that this is a viable strategy, that and the exorbitant roaming charges, and they wonder why they are hated.
When Optus first landed in Australia, I signed up with them. At the time, I was a 3rd party contractor who repaired the various Lexmark printers in their offices around Sydney. In their HQ in North Sydney, they had zero signal on their own network.
The only 2 places you could get a clear signal, was on level 21, either the smokers balcony, or in the bogs. Thats right, the only 2 times you didnt want to be disturbed by phone calls, were the only times you could get disturbed by phone calls.
Why the flame suit? Of course its a marketing ploy. I'm guessing Optus have looked at the state of the market and their customer satisfaction surveys and decided its best to be the first to jump. Kind of like Essendon and performance enhancing dru... sorry, supplements. The ploy worked so well for them...